


Cherry's Matchmaking Service #26-30

by HockeyMatchmaking



Series: Cherry's Matchmaking Service [6]
Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Cherry's Matchmaking Service, M/M, Rare Pairings, Short Stories
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-09-30
Updated: 2011-09-30
Packaged: 2017-11-29 21:26:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/691621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HockeyMatchmaking/pseuds/HockeyMatchmaking
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The sixth set of five stories in the Cherry's Matchmaking Service (CMS) series.<br/>#26: When Raymond opened his locker, his flute fell out. "Shouldn't you keep that in a case? I mean it could get dirty."<br/>#27: It wasn't like Antti Niemi had stood him up, it hadn't really been a 'date', but Rinne was still disappointed.<br/>#28: "Well, don't let your 'personal stuff' affect your game play." Weber said gruffly.<br/>#29: "Yeah, you like me so much that you're moving to Phoenix." The goalie complained bitterly.<br/>#30: An extremely naked and sopping wet Nathan Horton appeared from the bedroom. "Whoops." He commented, quickly turning around and leaving.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cherry's Matchmaking Service #26-30

**Author's Note:**

> These are some of the very first Hockey RPF stories I wrote, back in 2011, so don't chirp me too hard for grammar, or spelling. I thought I'd post them up so you can see the progression of my writing style.

CMS 26

Raymond walked into the dressing room with a towel wrapped around his hips. He didn't realize that the towel looked like it was about to fall off, and that was attracting a lot of stares. When Raymond opened his locker, his flute fell out and his captain asked, his eyebrows scrunched with worry "Shouldn't you keep that in a case? I mean it could get dirty."

Raymond turned with a slight surprised grin. "Are you a musician?" the Vancouver forward asked curiously and his captain nodded. "What instrument do you play?" Raymond asked with a smirk and Henrik stepped back, opening his locker and pulling out an accordion. Men started streaming out of the locker room as they finished changing almost all at once.

Raymond looked down at his feet as he felt embarrassed. "Uh...can I hear you play?" Raymond asked shyly. Henrik smiled and did so. Raymond tapped his foot to the beat even though the song was done. The Canucks captain smiled in response to Raymond's cheerful applause. "Can you play the flute for me?" Henrik asked his eyes bright with excitement and Raymond shuffled his feet, but he played anyway and when he was done, Henrik clapped loudly but frowned.

"I think that last note was a little off though." the Canucks captain added and clapped the younger man on the back, Raymond looked a little dejected as he admitted. "I don't play much, I've just started learning how to play the flute. I'm used to playing the piano." Henrik smiled and replied with. "I'm a pretty good flutist. Maybe I can teach you sometime."

Secretly Ryan Kesler slunk back in to the shadows as he laughed to himself. He shook his head at how little the two men noticed innuendo.  
As he left the stadium, Kesler frowned as he mused out loud. "Maybe Henrik can teach Bieksa to play the flute."  
  
CMS 27

Pekka Rinne scuffed his feet along the ground as he walked along the dark street, he hadn't really expected the enemy goalie to show up. But his hopes had still been high. It wasn't like Antti Niemi had stood him up, it hadn't really been a 'date', but Rinne was still disappointed. Niemi's words rung in the Predator goalie's head as he walked down the street. 'Meet me in the bar on 9th at 10 pm and we'll continue this." the Shark's goaltender had said with a smile and a wink. Rinne sighed as he closed his hotel door and collapsed on his bed. Ah, well. So much for that, the man thought with a frown.

The next game Rinne played against San Jose, he couldn't help cornering Niemi after the game to confront him. "Why didn't you show up?" Rinne growled and Niemi averted his gaze with a frown. "Er...my team decided to have a meeting that night..." the Shark explained and Rinne growled again, letting go of the other Finnish man.

Niemi smiled a suggestive smile and said, "You should come with me to my room right now, so that I don't get drawn into something else again."  
  
CMS 28

Pekka Rinne was in a funk, his boyfriend of two months, Antti Niemi, had broken up with him for a Bruin forward. In practice, Rinne made the saves, but walked around enveloped in a cloud of depression. Finally, Shea Weber, the Predator's captain, had to do something. So one day after a practice, Weber stopped Rinne on his way out and ushered the goalie back into the locker room.

"Alright Rinne, what's up?" Weber asked the other man, sitting down as Rinne paced. "Nothing." The goalie replied and Weber raised an eyebrow in disbelief.  
Weber frowned and tried a different approach. "We've all noticed a change in you, Pekka. And as your captain I'd like to know what is wrong with you." The captain stated blatantly and Rinne's lips puckered as he pouted like a spoiled child. "There's just been some personal stuff going on with me, okay?" Rinne growled and Weber stood, annoyed by the goalie's behavior.

"Well, don't let your 'personal stuff' affect your game play." Weber said gruffly and Rinne sniffled a little. Weber sighed and rubbed the back of his neck as he tried to decide what to say next to the upset goalie. "You wanna come over for a drink and tell me what's wrong?" The Nashville captain asked with another sigh at the thought of giving up his quiet evening. Rinne nodded, looking off to the side as he wiped his eyes free of 'allergies'.

Once the two men got to Weber's house, Weber sighed as he turned on the lights in his house. Rinne took a very large gulp of beer when offered and his captain raised an eyebrow at the goalie. "So you gonna tell me what's wrong?" Weber asked the goalie, who took another long swig of beer. "You might wanna go easy on the alcohol." The Nashville captain added worriedly and Rinne waved of the comment with one hand. Rinne hiccuped once and opened his mouth to spill his tale of woe. After he finally finished talking, Weber's mouth was open and Rinne had gone through six beer bottles. Shea frowned as his mind started working, trying to figure out what he should do about this.

It wasn't like it was illegal, or even a punishable crime. But Weber was still worried about what he, as a captain, should do. Rinne smiled after a moment and started laughing, then clapped a brooding Weber on his back. "Thanks man, I really feel a lot better now." The goalie said and took another swig of his beer. Weber frowned and took his empty beer bottles over to the recycling. The Predator's captain sighed for the forth time that night and opened another beer with a pop. "Do you want something to eat, Pekka?" Weber asked and Rinne nodded, shakily.

Weber sighed and threw a package of soup and rice in his microwave. A moment later a ding sounded and Weber carefully pulled out the steaming food.  
The Nashville captain plunked the food down in front of his almost drunk goalie. Weber felt like he was looking after a child, not a teammate.  
Much later that night and many more beers for both men, Rinne smiled and commented out of the blue. "You're nice, I always thought you had a stick up your ass, but you're actually nice."

Weber stiffened and growled back fiercely. "I do not!" Rinne giggled a little and replied with. "Yeah, you do. You always look like you're uncomfortable and in pain."  
And everyone wondered why at the next game the Predators played, Shea Weber looked like he was trying to keep a strange, pained smile on his face instead of his usual frown.  
  
CMS 29

"What do you mean you're getting traded to Phoenix?!" A loud yell echoed into the supposedly empty arena. Torres shook his head and raised an eyebrow, lightly pecking his boyfriend (who he suspected wouldn't be his boyfriend much longer) on his lips. Luongo growled and shoved the other man away. "You know how I feel about long distance relationships! How could you?" The Vancouver goalie asked, his eyes accusing and yet still pleading for an answer.

Raffi Torres sighed and leaned back, crossing his arms. "You knew I only had a one year lease with the Canucks, unlike you, I'm actually not tied permanently to a particular team." The forward grumbled, a little annoyed by his boyfriend's actions. Lou huffed and crossed his arms, turning away from the ex-Canuck with a sniffle. "I am not tied to the Canucks! And at least I'm wanted somewhere!" The goalie added snidely and, as predicted, Torres turned red with rage at Luongo's words.

"It's a good thing I like you Lou, or I might be more than a little angry at that comment." Torres warned and the Canucks goalie  shrugged. "Yeah, you like me so much that you're moving to Phoenix." The goalie complained bitterly and Torres winced, realizing how hurt Lou was by this decision. "Aw." The forward mumbled, rubbing the back of his head as he suddenly felt bad for abandoning poor Loui. "It's alright Lou. You know you'll still be my favorite goalie." Torres smiled hesitantly and leaned forward to touch Lou's arm, but the goalie pulled away.

"How do I know you're not gonna treat me like you treat any other goalie? How do I know you wont celebrate when you score a goal on me that depresses me and makes people angry with me? How do I know you're not just going to run straight into the arms of Mike Smith?" The irate goalie ranted and Torres sighed admitting to all but Lou's last point. Torres shrugged after a moment and kissed the goalie, after a moment Torres panted and held one hand on Lou's face.

Torres quietly replied. "I'm not sure what we'll do, but if I hear of someone hurting you in any way, I'll be down here in a flash. I'll become that crazy fan who comes to every game and vaults over the plexiglass if anyone dares to touch his goalie." Luongo smiled sadly and caressed the other man's head with a shaky hand. "And I'll be that goalie who everyone wonders why he only ever lets one man score in his crease."  
  
CMS 30

A forceful knocking on Burrows door woke him up one sweaty Saturday morning in the summer. The Canuck stumbled to answer the door, only partially awake and certainly not cognizant enough to realize that he was only wearing a pair of boxer shorts. Lapierre grinned at the sight that opened the door, Burrows looked mainly asleep as he leaned on the doorframe and mumbled, "Wazz up?" through the haze of sleep.

"I'm thinking that we should go visit Ol Raymond today, see if he's off his pain meds yet." Lapierre grinned and gave Burrows another once over. "Although I think you should get dressed, either that or take off your boxers and we'll put a bow on your head." Lapierre laughed and laughed at the mental image of a grumpy, gift-wrapped Burrows being presented to a blushing, embarrassed Raymond who was hopped up on pain meds. Burrows grumbled as Lapierre calmed down and wiped away the tears of laughter that had gathered at the edge of his eyes.

Burrows disappeared into his room with a sigh of resignation. Lapierre smiled and started humming as he pulled a dish of pasta out of Burrows' fridge and sniffed it. Lapierre shrugged and stuck the pasta in the microwave, he, personally couldn't understand Burrows' attraction to having dinner-foods for breakfast. A moment later the shower turned on and Lapierre sat down at the table with an apple for himself. Soon Burrows emerged, looking significantly more awake than he had earlier. "Coffee?" The Frenchman muttered and Lapierre grinned widely. "I know you too well, coffee's in the pot, pasta's in the microwave." The other Frenchman replied and Burrows yawned widely.

Later, after coffee and breakfast the two men headed out. Raymond winced as he unlocked and opened the door for his teammates. Then the freshly showered, injured man hobbled back to his kitchen to take his pain meds. "Ah, still taking your medication I see. Burrows, you owe me ten bucks." Lapierre smiled as the grumpy man dug out his wallet. "Glad to see I'm still a source of entertainment for you, Max." Raymond said dryly as he took a scoop of fruit and ate it. "Aw come on, May-Ray. And we came all the way here to cheer you up!" Lapierre pouted for a moment then his smile returned with a vengeance. Burrows quietly sat down with a sigh, 'and I woke up for this?' the Canuck thought as he quietly shook his head.

"Mason! Where are the towels? I can't find the towels!" A male voice said rather loudly and an extremely naked and sopping wet Nathan Horton appeared from the bedroom. "Whoops." He commented, quickly turning around and leaving. Raymond sighed and ambled off after Horton. Both Lapierre and Burrows' mouths were wide open as they exchanged a shocked glance. After a moment Lapierre started laughing, really, really loudly and Burrows couldn't help but laugh too. "You owe me twenty bucks, dude." Burrows said with a quirky grin. "Oh yeah, that bet! And here I thought he'd be together with Bieksa first." Lapierre sighed and handed his friend the cash.

Soon a flustered Raymond reappeared, dragging a now dressed Horton. Lapierre grinned and couldn't help teasing the pair. "Raymond." The man chided. "Does your doctor know you're engaging in strenuous activity this soon after your injury?" Lapierre feigned a look of worry as the two men blushed. Horton murmured something to Raymond that Lapierre didn't quite catch, but Burrows heard and replied before Raymond had the chance too. "It's much better not to give him the satisfaction of an actual response." Burrows advised and then stuck out his tongue at Lapierre. Horton frowned and walked over and stuck his head in the fridge.

Lapierre suddenly slapped his knee and smiled. "What do you get when you cross a bear with a fish?" the frenchman asked. "Don't touch that one with a ten foot pole, Nathan." Raymond warned, but Horton bit anyway. "What?" Horton asked, curious and Burrows shook his head sadly. Lapierre grinned and stuck out his tongue. "A tangle of limbs, some where they don't belong and flopping that results in loud growls."  


**Author's Note:**

> Yup, I know these are questionable for grammar, or plot, or anything really. But they really do get better as they go along!
> 
> Also, I should explain Lappi's comment about fish and bears in the last one. Well, the Canucks logo is an orca (sort of a fish, not really, but close enough) and bruin means bear (but especially in children's fables...which is...um...), so yeah.


End file.
